There are four well known and common problems users of such electronic devices, particularly earphones connected to a personal media player or smartphone, encounter with their cords:                1. Tangling. When earphones are placed in a confined space such as a pocket or purse, their cords tangles on itself. The tangled mess of cords causes a time-consuming and frustrating problem for users to have to untangle their earphone cords prior to use.        2. Storing in an organized, compact way. Since earphones are often stored in confined spaces, which may include other objects such as keychains, they can become en tangled in these other objects. Additionally, since the amount of space is restricted, and must be shared with other objects, it is desirable to minimize the amount of space required to store earphones. Additionally, users generally like to maintain their accessories in a neat and tidy way.        3. Shortening the cord when needed. Earphones have cords of various lengths and depending on the height of the user, or where the media player or smartphone is placed, for example on an armband while running, the excess slack in the cord may interfere with the experience.        4. Entanglement of the cord with other objects in the user's environment while earphones are in use, and supporting them in place. Users often put their smartphone in their pocket with an earphone cord extending to their ears, while engaging in a variety of activities. Sometimes the dangling cord can inadvertently snag on other objects such as a doorknob causing the earphones to be pulled forcefully from the user's ears resulting in potential discomfort or damage to the earphones. Also, if the user is engaging in a vigorous activity, like running or biking, the user risks the earphone's speakers' slipping out of their secure position in the user's ears and dropping to the ground, or worse becoming entangled in a bicycle's gears, potentially damaging them. One contributing factor to the earphones slipping out of their secure position in a user's ears is the weight of the dangling and bouncing cord, which pulls on the earphone speakers in the user's ears since the earphones generally do not have a way to retain or tether the cord to the user or other way to decrease the pull on the earphones. Additionally, during use, the user may need to remove the earphones to talk with someone and this requires holding them in the user's hand, which may be inconvenient, or dangling them over a shoulder temporarily, which risks the earphones failing onto the ground.        
The description of the device in the application is generally focused on cord management devices for earphones due to unique challenges of these electronic devices versus other types of cords, though it should be understood that the cord management device can also be used for other types of cords (e.g. charging, data synchronization) which have similar cord management problems. The term earphones used throughout this application refers to any device also known as a headset, headphones, or earbuds. Devices for earphone cord management confront additional challenges resulting from the variety of cord lengths, diameters, shapes (flat or round), and placement of the inline microphones. Importantly, smartphones, and their accessories—such as smartphone cases and earphones—have been become fashion items and aesthetics or form is as important as function to the user. In at least one embodiment, the cord management organizer is attached to the cord—in effect—it is something that is “worn” and therefore seen by others. A cord management organizer that is semi-permanently attached to the cords necessitates additional functional and aesthetic requirements in order to be commercially viable.
Despite the above known and annoying problems, drawbacks with current solutions may have limited, their commercial viability. Prior art solutions address one or more of the above four problems depending on the device, but each approach has drawbacks that may include bulkiness, risk of loss due to not being attached to the cord, excessive weight, difficulty fitting diverse cords, time consuming to unwind and cost to manufacture. Therefore, there is a need for an improved cord management organizer that solves the above problems and combines multiple functions into a generally “one-size-fits all” device that remains unobtrusively attached to the cord for ready access.